News - Colombia

The Agrarian Summit has announced that the National Strike, which started on May 30, has come to an end with the victory of peasants, indigenous people, Afro Descendants and the indigenous urban populations. Spokesmen of the Agrarian Summit announced the conclusion of the Strike after the signing the agreements to start negotiating the main points of the Unified National Statement.

The Colombian authorities must ensure that the security forces, in particular the ESMAD anti-riot police, refrain from using disproportionate and excessive force against demonstrators, Amnesty International said today as a nationwide protest by rural communities enters its second week.

Letter to the President of the Republic
June 2, 2016
President Juan Manuel Santos

While spokespersons from the MINGA Nacional, Agraria, Campesina, Etnica and Popular were making an evaluation of the very serious violations of rights during the Minga and the lack of guarantees for the mobilization and for the call to President Santos for negotiations, the indigenous authorities of Northern Cauca – ACIN, reported the assassination by the Army of two members of the indigenous guard.

According to the People’s Congress, there are 134 people detained in Santander*, 3 dead in the south-west part of the country and an undetermined number of injured people by actions of the public force against protesters. In Tolima the Black Eagles threatened the social organizations in the region. In addition, new information has surfaced about the assassination of two indigenous people in Cauca and the forced miscarriage of two women due to attacks by the Police.

Since Saturday, thousands of peasants, indigenous people and afro-Colombians have been mobilising for a nationwide strike called for 30 May. Amongst their demands are calls for improvements in health, education, access to land and a moratorium on extractive projects. While the government, emboldened by the progress in formal peace talks with insurgents, claims that the current model of economic development is not up for debate, popular social and political movements argue that any durable peace must include deeper transformations in society.

In Colombia, on the evening of 28th May, peaceful protestors allied with the Congreso de los Pueblos (The Congress of the Peoples is a social and political movement born out of the “La Minga” indigenous mobilizations of 2008. The movement achieved national scope and was joined by students, workers, women, peasants, Afro-Colombians, community groups, and other sectors of society), were threatened with arson and physical violence by local police on their way to joining the national strike called for the 30th May.

This bulletin consists of an electronic version (below), but also a PDF version that we invite you to print and distribute in your workplace. We also encourage you to invite your colleagues and allies to subscribe to this email list.

Faced with a dead-letter agreement and the government’s neglect to address the demands of the Colombian people, we, the members of the social movement, the union centrals, the trucking sector, the taxi sector, and other citizen initiatives, are concerned about the economic, political, and social situation and have sent this letter to President Juan Manuel Santos, expressing the demands central to the national general strike whose first edition took place on March 17.

The Canadian company’s Angostura mining project in the high-altitude wetlands, or páramo, of Santurbán, has announced that it could file an international arbitration suit against Colombia over measures to protect the páramo, which are important sources of water in the country.

On February 28th, the Agua y Agricultura Si, Petróleo y Minería No! (Water and Agriculture yes, Petrolum and mining no!) campaign organised a regional meeting for the water defense in the Sumapaz province. This meeting took place in the Fusagasugá city, in the Cundinamarca department, with the goal of gathering residents from various municipalities located around the Sumapaz páramo and affected by different extractive projects.